A blog about Hamilton and Ontario politics and economy. Or whatever I find interesting.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

When Will the Electricity Price Increases For November 2015 Be Announced For Ontario?

Electricity prices are change May 1st and November 1st in Ontario. In theory they could go down, but obviously lately they have gone up quite rapidly. It is now October 11, so we are getting close to the point that the increases should be announced.For the last increase, I found a CBC article dated April 20th, so likely around October 20th. Conveniently for the federal Liberals, that's after the October 19th federal poll. sdfdsThis blog post of mine describes the Ontario electricity price increases in May 2015:"For on peak pricing, the price per kWh is increasing on May 1st from 14 cents to 16.1 cents, a 2.1 cent increase or 15%. The on peak increase on November 1st was from 13.5 cents to 14 cents, a 3.7 increase. Thus the year over year increase, from 13.5 cents to 16.1 cents, is 2.6 cents or a 19.2% increase which is obviously significantly more than Ontario's inflation rate.

For mid-peak, prices will increase on May 1st from 11.4 cents to 12.2 cents, a 0.8 cents increase or 7%. On November 1st, the price increase from 11.2 cents to 11.4 cents, only a 1.8 percent increase. Year on year the increase was 1 cent or an 8.9% increase, again significantly above Ontario's inflation rate.

Finally for off-peak, the increase on May 1st is 0.3 cents, from 7.7 cents to 8 cents, a 3.9% increase. On November 1st, the price increased from 7.5 cents to 7.7 cents, a 0.2 cent increase or a 2.7% increase. Year over year the increase was 0.5 cents from 7.5 to 8 cents, a 6.7% increase, which is well above Ontario's inflation but nowhere near the massive increase in on peak pricing."

What can we expect for this November? Perhaps 3.5 to 4% overall, with different increases for the different periods. With wind production up and peaking overnight, keeping off-peak rates low relative to peak pricing makes a lot of sense.